While the good news is that MRSA figures for our region are among the lowest in the country, the bad news is these cases are rising four times faster in North East hospitals than the national average.

There's no case for complacency, and when you consider it's a bug that can be washed away with soap and water, the stark conclusion has to be drawn that we don't keep our hospitals clean enough.

A friend of mind had a stay in hospital recently, and told me she had reported the toilets as being wet and filthy, so much so that she couldn't use them.

A hospital worker was sent to clean them up.

A little later, that same worker was serving lunch on the ward. My friend refused hers.

Ex-nurse and TV agony aunt Claire Rayner has recently gone on record to say she will never stay in an NHS hospital again and of course tragic Lesley Ash has just returned home after having been semi-paralysed by a form of MRSA following her fall of a few months ago.

All patients are at risk from infections once in hospital but preventable diseases like MRSA, which require only the basics of personal hygiene to stop them, should not be on the march in the 21st Century.

It frankly seems barmy that we can all but eradicate smallpox but now live in fear of a potential killer that we can kill with nothing more expensive than a little soap and water!

Five year scheme is fatally flawed

The Home Office five year crime plan to cut anti-social behaviour and put the respect back into communities raises more questions than solutions.

While David Blunkett has identified binge drinking as a major cause of anti-social behaviour, the plans to relax licensing laws will continue.

It won't be more policemen on the beat but more wardens and CSOs, 15,000 of them in fact, and that will create issues with the Police Federation, already suspicious of their members' job security.

There will be tagging for this and electronic surveillance for that, more CCTV cameras, and doubtless more demands from the Treasury for funding to pay for it all.

But just as the famous five year plans of the Soviet era failed to produce either enough food or steel, I doubt this particular plan will prove to be other than so much hot air. It's not safer we will feel so much as permanently spied upon.

Shed a final tier!

The row over two or three tier education in the outer west of Newcastle has a new twist. While the Lib Dems opposed closing middle schools in Throckley, Chapel House and Chapel Park, they can't stop the decision by the previous Labour council.

What they can do, however, is reverse the process in two years time if they feel that is what parents, pupils and teachers want. That will cost a fortune and disrupt the schooling of children.

That's the knot, parents are angry; they feel their views have been expressed and whereas one change is bad, two is a bridge too far.

Seems to me if the Lib Dems can't stop it then they should stop talking about it!

A friend in need?

Matty Persson's rescue of his pals Ryan Nolan and Matty Laurie is an incredible tale of courage and heroism.

The two 12-year-olds were splashing about on Tynemouth's Long Sands when they got out of their depth and into the current.

Knowing that neither of them could swim, Matty, who could, dived in to rescue them.

Having helped Ryan back to his depth so that he could walk out of the sea on to the beach, Matty returned to rescue his namesake.

Now well in the grip of the current, he realised they had no chance of swimming against it and changed course for the lighthouse instead.

For nearly 30 minutes, the two boys struggled towards the outcrop, Persson keeping Laurie afloat and fighting for both their lives.

Hero Matty, who suffers from asthma, collapsed from exhaustion when they finally made the shore.

Now the lads are fully recovered, they can reflect upon how close they came to tragedy.

Certainly without Matty their number was up.

What a child of courage, and what a worthy candidate for the Royal Humane Society's special lifesaving award.

Son to be proud of

It was impossible not to be moved by the tributes that poured in for 17-year-old Daniel Swaddle, the young pilot who died from an inoperable brain tumour.

Qualifying as one of Britain's youngest pilots, Daniel lived to fly planes.

From his final journey home by air ambulance to that same helicopter hovering over his funeral service, the aviation community paid this young man the highest respect they can. His parents must feel so terribly proud of him.